The Taborites were a radical sect of Hussites based in Tabor, Bohemia in the 15th century. They emerged during the Protestant Reformation and were named after Mount Tabor, where they gathered to await the second coming of Christ. The Taborites fiercely opposed the Catholic Church and advocated for far-reaching church reforms. They held unorthodox theological beliefs and refused to recognize any authority outside of the Bible.
The roots of the Taborite movement can be traced back to the teachings of Jan Hus, the influential Czech church reformer. Hus denounced clerical corruption and challenged various Catholic doctrines and practices. In 1415, he was burned at the stake as a heretic at the Council of Constance. After Hus’ death, his followers known as Hussites rose up against the Catholic Church and defeated several papal crusades in the Hussite Wars. The more moderate Hussites were known as Utraquists. The Taborites emerged as a more radical offshoot of the Hussite movement under the leadership of former barber Jan Zelivsky.
Zelivsky preached a fiery apocalyptic message and prophesied the imminent second coming of Christ. In 1419, he led thousands of his followers out of Prague to establish a community on Mount Tabor, inspired by Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain as described in the Gospels. The Taborites aimed to build a society modeled after the primitive Christian church they read about in the Book of Acts. They believed in the priesthood of all believers and rejected the authority of priests, monks, and the nobility. The Taborites sought to return to biblical practices and defied many traditional Catholic rituals.
The Taborites developed distinctive theological beliefs departing from Catholic orthodoxy. They rejected transubstantiation and did not believe communion bread and wine became the actual body and blood of Christ. The Taborites insisted on receiving communion in both kinds – both bread and wine – rather than just bread for the laity. They did not pray to saints and opposed the veneration of relics, icons, and images. The Taborites denied purgatory and repudiated indulgences. They criticized the worldliness and wealth of the Catholic clergy. Overall, they wanted to strip away the traditions of Roman Catholicism and return to the Christianity of the Bible.
Led by their skilled military commander Jan Zizka, the Taborites had remarkable success against Catholic forces in a series of crusades launched against them. Their peasant soldiers employed innovative tactics like using wagons as mobile fortifications. After Zizka’s death in 1424, the Taborite forces continued to defeat enemies including allied Catholic-Utraquist armies. But they also became divided between a moderate faction and a radical wing known as the Taborite purists.
The Taborite purists were led by a priest named Martin Huska who advocated for a complete break from the Catholic Church. They sought to violently impose their vision of biblical purity on society. The purists destroyed churches, monasteries, and images throughout Bohemia in the summer of 1420. They also killed dozens of religious officials and nobility who refused to accept Taborite practices. This unleashed further persecution against the Taborites.
In 1433, moderate Utraquist Hussites joined with Catholic forces to decisively defeat the Taborites at the Battle of Lipany. This marked the end of the Taborite movement as a military power. Most of the surviving Taborites were reabsorbed into the Utraquist Hussites or assimilated back into Catholic areas. A small community of Taborites continued to exist over the next few centuries until 1655, when they were forcibly converted to Catholicism. The Taborite emphasis on biblically-centered Christianity influenced later Protestant traditions.
In summary, the Taborites were a radical 15th century sect of Hussites originating from Bohemia. They sought to purify the church and return to biblical Christianity. The Taborites rejected Catholic authority, developed their own unorthodox theology, and had remarkable military success for a time under Zizka’s leadership. But they were ultimately crushed after years of warfare against Catholic forces. The Taborites played a role in the larger Protestant Reformation through their vision for reforming Christianity based on scripture alone.
The Taborites demonstrate that reform movements within Christianity have frequently arisen to call for returning to biblical roots and stripping away extra-biblical traditions. However, these efforts have often become radicalized in their zeal. The Taborites resorted to iconoclasm and violence in their quest for purity according to their interpretation of the Bible. This reflects an ongoing tension in Christianity between preserving unity and continuing reformation based on scripture. Movements like the Taborites illustrate both the power and the pitfalls of prioritizing the Bible over church authority and tradition.